Tibbets' role in the bombing brought him fame - and infamy - throughout his life. In 1976, he was criticized for re-enacting the bombing during an appearance at a Harlingen, Texas, air show. As he flew a B-29 Superfortress over the show, a bomb set off on the runway below created a mushroom cloud. He said the display "was not intended to insult anybody," but the Japanese were outraged. The U.S. government later issued a formal apology. Tibbets again defended the bombing in 1995, when an outcry erupted over a planned 50th anniversary exhibit of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian Institution. The museum had planned to mount an exhibit that would have examined the context of the bombing, including the discussion within the Truman administration of whether to use the bomb, the rejection of a demonstration bombing and the selection of the target. Veterans groups objected, saying the proposed display paid too much attention to Japan's suffering and too little to Japan's brutality during and before World War II, and that it underestimated the number of Americans who would have perished in an invasion. They said the bombing of Japan was an unmitigated blessing for the United States and the exhibit should say so. Tibbets denounced it as "a damn big insult." The museum changed its plan and agreed to display the fuselage of the Enola Gay without commentary, context or analysis. He told the Dispatch in 2005 that he wanted his ashes scattered over the English Channel, where he loved to fly during the war. Newhouse confirmed that Tibbets wanted to be cremated, but he said relatives had not yet determined how he would be laid to rest. Tibbets is survived by his wife, Andrea, and three sons - Paul, Gene and James - as well as a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A grandson named after Tibbets followed his grandfather into the military as a B-2 bomber pilot currently stationed in Belgium. -- On the Net: Enola Gay Remembered Inc.: http://www.enolagay.org

Yeah, "decades later." I'll add a little info here and say unreleased video from the 50's reveals intense remorse from Tibbets for dropping the bomb. The clip can be found in the HBO Documentary White Light, Black Rain. Why he would be stupid enough -- or manipulated enough -- to do an air show reenactment I don't know, but the story isn't as simple as the man was a psychopath. But I'm sure the people who gave him his orders -- the true psychopaths in this case -- don't mind.

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Fearful of protesters, [Tibbets] requested that no funeral arrangements be made and no headstone mark his gravesite.

I also find the following AP article ironic. The traditional argument in support of dropping the bomb has been that it saved hundreds of thousands of American lives. But when Paul Tibbets supports this traditional argument, the article leans toward faulting Tibbets reasoning. Can you imagine the same article faulting any given President's bomb-drop reasoning?

The article starts with such comments as

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[Tibbets passed away] after six decades of steadfastly defending the mission

and

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Tibbets seemed more troubled by other people's objections to the bomb than by him having led the crew that killed tens of thousands of Japanese in a single stroke.

Yes, he led the crew, but who gave the order? And whatever happened to "support our troops?"

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And [Tibbets] insisted he slept just fine, believing with certainty that using the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved more lives than they erased . . .

Is AP questioning the conscience of all the U.S. troops involved in WWII? Or is it just Tibbets who they're attacking? Why?

After these attacks have been taken care of, only then does the article get around to reporting the other side of the story:

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"I'm not proud that I killed 80,000 people, but I'm proud that I was able to start with nothing, plan it and have it work as perfectly as it did," he said in a 1975 interview.

And

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'What they needed was someone who could do this and not flinch — and that was me. . . .'

"You've got to take stock and assess the situation at that time. We were at war. ... You use anything at your disposal."

The truth of the American media is they don't support the troops; they write what that they're told to write -- like good soldiers. And they "sleep clearly" as the uninformed masses suffer needlessly, all the way to the grave.

I don't see a moral solid ground anywhere for bashing Tibbets. We fucking ordered him to do it; and there are tens of thousands of "Tibbets" in missile silos all over this goddamn planet right now with their hands on those keys. And what does the media have to say about that? Not a goddamn thing.

Blaming Tibbets is very short sighted. Truman wanted to use the bombs. Partly because the key scientists behind the bomb put some pressure on him to use it. I'm thinking it was Oppenheimer who had his ear.

My problem is that we dropped both bombs within one week of one another. My opinion is that was probably more brutal than need be.

Sometimes I speculate that if Japan was truly about to surrender, the first bomb should have hastened that procedure.